Master's thesis Survey Statistics and Data Analysis

Admission

Admission to the module examination Master's thesis requires that at least 60 ECTS credits have been acquired (the date of registration counts).

Topic selection

Possible topics for a master's thesis finden Sie auf der verlinkten Seite im Dokument "M?gliche Masterarbeitsthemen". Auch eigene Themenvorschl?ge sind m?glich. Bevorzugt sollten drei Themenvorschl?ge zur Ankündigung eingereicht werden. Eine genaue Fragestellung und Vorgehensplanung ist noch nicht notwendig und kann nach der Ankündigung mit dem Betreuer/der Betreuerin erarbeitet werden.

Collaboration with an external company/institute, etc.

Alternatively, the Master's thesis can also be written at an external company or research institute. 

Please note:

• The topic must be related to the content of the degree programme and meet academic standards. Research that is purely company-specific and does not yield generalisable findings does not meet this criterion.
• In addition to a university assessor, there should also be an external contact person from the company or institute.
• The department staff are not authorised to sign on behalf of the university, which means that NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) cannot be signed. The work can only be marked as restricted upon submission.

Announcement

The Master's thesis must be announced at the beginning of the planned semester (deadline: 15 April for the summer semester and 15 October for the winter semester). The following documents must be submitted by email to abschlussarbeiten.stat-oek(at)uni-bamberg.de:

• Master's thesis questionnaire (document can be found here(131.0 KB, 2 pages))
• Overview of services
  • You will need the "Certificate of grades with failed attempts", which can be accessed on FlexNow.
• Letter of motivation

By complying with the notification period, the candidate ensures the availability of a supervisor. If the documents are submitted after the deadline, the corresponding supervision can no longer be guaranteed, but in most cases it is still possible.

Examiner or supervisor

Prof. Dr. A?mann, Prof. Dr. Leucht, Prof. Dr. Schmid, Dr. Meinfelder and Dr. Würz are among those who may be considered as examiners.

Once the documents announcing the Master's thesis have been submitted in full, the chair will identify a suitable examiner and inform the candidate. If the candidate wishes to be supervised by a specific person, they can contact them in advance to request this. This is particularly recommended if the topic falls within the field of expertise of Prof. Dr. Leucht or Prof. Dr. A?mann.

Supervision by a chair outside the subject area is also possible and should be clarified with the chair in advance. In the case of chairs outside the subject area, approval from the examination board is required, which can be obtained by email. In principle, supervision by Prof. Dr. Ute Schmid, Prof. Dr. Engelhardt-W?lfler and Prof. Dr. Trappmann is approved.

Formally, the examiner and supervisor are the same person. However, the examiner may also assign one of their doctoral students to provide primary supervision.

Registration/Application for admission

Once an examiner has been found who is willing to supervise the desired topic of the Master's thesis, the Master's thesis can be registered. Registration can take place at any time and is not limited to the lecture period. It is customary to register after approximately one month of familiarisation. The title of the thesis must already be finalised at the time of registration and should not be changed. In exceptional cases, however, the title may be modified with the confirmation of the examiner if it can be guaranteed that the content of the thesis has remained the same and the topic has not been changed accordingly. It is particularly important that everything that needs to be applied for and is not within the candidate's personal sphere of influence is already available at the time of registration. This includes, for example, data access or access to the computing power required to process large amounts of data.

The necessary steps for registering your Master's thesis at the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences can be found here.

After registration, the examination board will send the candidate written confirmation of admission to the Master's thesis, including the topic and supervisor. This notification must be presented to the supervisor. Upon presentation of the notification, the examiner will assign the topic of the Master's thesis to the candidate, at which point the six-month processing period begins.

Processing instructions

On the back of the topic confirmation from the chair, there are important processing instructions for the preparation of master's theses.

Further tips and style guides can be found here.

Time allowed to complete the master’s thesis

The prescribed time frame for completion of the master’s thesis is six months. The processing period begins when the topic of the master's thesis is announced. The submission deadline can then be viewed in FlexNow. The work can be extended by 4 weeks. More detailed information can be found here.

Colloquium

Towards the end or after the processing period, a presentation of the work (approx. 30 minutes lecture + approx. 15 minutes questions) is planned. This is a "soft defence" that does not count towards the assessment. The aim is to demonstrate that the candidate has written the work independently and has extensive knowledge of the subject. The oral presentation should be supported by presentation slides.

The standard platform for the presentation is the advanced seminar in statistics and econometrics. The semi-public presentation takes place in front of the examiner, other students and anyone else who is interested. Registration is the same as for all other courses, but can also be done via Dr. Florian Meinfelder. If the advanced seminar in statistical econometrics is intended as a presentation platform, the presentation must take place during the lecture period. 

If the work is supervised by another department, an equivalent platform offered by the supervising department may also be used. The examiner must be present during the presentation.

If the thesis is written in cooperation with an institute or company and a presentation at the company is planned towards the end of the thesis, it is also possible, in consultation with the examiner, to combine the colloquium with this presentation. In this case, the examiner must be present at the presentation at the company. A colloquium outside of the lecture period is also possible in this case.

Submission of the master's thesis

The Master's thesis must be typed and written in German or English and submitted to the Examination Office in two bound copies. Each bound copy must be accompanied by an electronic version of the entire thesis in PDF format. Upon written request, the Examination Board may, with the consent of the examiner, permit the Master's thesis to be written in another modern language.

If the Master's thesis is not submitted by the deadline in accordance with § 29 (4), it will be graded as "unsatisfactory" (5.0). If the Master's thesis is sent by post, the date of the postmark will be decisive for determining whether the deadline has been met..

Correction/Evaluation

If a master's thesis submitted on time is graded "unsatisfactory" (5.0), the candidate shall generally be notified of this two months after the date of submission.

If the master's thesis constitutes the final module examination or module part examination, the assessment should be made within two months of submission.

The Master's thesis is a module worth 30 ECTS credits.

Helpful links for your Master's thesis

• FAQ
• Information on applying for admission to the Faculty of Social Sciences
• Theses at the Chair of Statistics & Econometrics
• Study/examination regulations and module handbook

The information summarised on this page is intended solely to provide students with a better overview. All information is provided without guarantee. For matters relating to examination regulations, please refer to official documents (e.g. examination regulations).